<p>Take the language that interests you and is most useful to you. There are some times when you have to consider how a college will view rigour of classes, where you want to take a core instead of an elective (sometimes vice versa.) but this is not one of those cases, formal language training 3 and preferably 4 years is good. Going after what inspires and interests you is good. Fluency in speaking, reading and writing is more important than just getting by. That’s why they encourage not switching between 2.</p>
<p>My daughter took 4 years Spanish because I insisted, but she was more interested in French. She didn’t do great until she got a chance to visit Argentina in a Spanish immersion program. She always wanted to know a Chinese language because we lived near a Chinatown. She took an intensive year of Mandarin in college. She might be suprised to find that Cantonese was the language spoken in our city. But she can talk to people in our new city and they are surprised she can. She also took Russian and that helped when she travelled through former USSR states semester abroad.</p>